American society is risk averse to pathological levels in general.
Depends what you're talking about. On space shuttles, absolutely. In the army, not so much. We'll spend billions for quadruple redundancy on the Shuttle, but wouldn't spend hundreds-of-thousands for armour plating for HumVees (sp?)
If you don't like the two wars, then let us drill here, drill now
The problem is you're just delaying the inevitable - Oil is a finite resource. Sure, you could drill up Alaska like swiss cheese, but what does it buy you? Another 20 years? We need to move to renewables.
Part of the reason companies like Bell and Xerox were able to invest in 'basic research' was that back in the the day they had monopoly positions (Bell's through legislation, Xerox's via patents), which meant they had huge profits and in turn meant they had spare money for "basic R&D."
It might have cost $2 per minute to call France but a portion of that $2 per minute went to R&D.
The loss of the monopoly positions (justified in many cases) meant by extension the loss of the profits that are required to support R&D.
Do you have children? Do you live with a partner? Does s/he work? My wife and I each work and get home from work at around 5:30. We have dinner with our daughter around 6 or 6:30, then bath time, story time and bed time with one parent, while the other parent cleans up from dinner. Then it's an hour or so of 'us' time, before we head to bed. Where exactly in our schedule is this mythical time to do 'daily groceries by bike' in the dark pouring rain in February?
Same reason we've kept it (along with a hard-wired 'old skool' phone), especially now that we have a toddler. Here in Vancouver, Canada, even if you dial 911 and then drop the phone emergency services will respond to your address.
I'm sure if the production team had tried to come up with original shots for each episode, they would have looked a lot more low-budget
Hey, I'll be the first to admit that many stock FX shots were used over and over again, to the point of it being a joke, but there also frequently tons of new stuff...
Off the top of my head, the Pegasus sequences had many new FX shots, as did all the Eastern Alliance story arcs, War of the Gods (or whatever it was called), and on and on.
I guess you're trolling but I'll bite and ask: Are you frakkin' kidding?!! I remember watching the show every Sunday night and being blown away by the FX. There was nothing on the air like it in 1978:
This stuff was done *on TV*, with MODELS and motion-control cameras. It was unprecedented. I realize every kid today can whip off an episode of Star Track on his Macbook, but that was not the case in 1978.
I live in Vancouver. Whether you get 'scanned' depends a lot on where you want to go. If you want to go to a dance club ("Night at the Roxbury") with $10 martinis in the Granville Entertainment District, or a high-end strip bar then yes you'll need to get scanned to get through the door. If you want to go to a pub with your buddies and have a few pints and watch the hockey game, or go to a seedier strip club, then no, you won't get scanned. The clubs that have these scanners have large signs telling you as such, and the cameras are fairly obvious.
I don't really have an issue with it as I don't have to patronize those bars if I don't want to.
A lot of attraction is based on first impressions - A good haircut, nice shoes and a pressed shirt 'get you in the door.' You won't get much further if you don't have something to sell (i.e. intelligence, sense of humour, etc.) but to make your pitch you've got to make a good first impression. Face, it girls notice shoes. Loose the Tevas with socks.
I know much of slashdot would vehemently disagree, but for the majority of users, Windows comes 'for free' with their PC. They buy a computer from Dell or whomever and it comes with Windows, then when the buy a new PC 4 or 5 years later, it comes with Windows again. Virtually no one I know 'buys' the OS - They'll simply get a the newest / latest when they buy a new computer.
The real problem is that it is surprisingly hard to embrace a new system of measurement when you've spent your entire life thinking in different terms.
I live in Canada. I'm 42, so I was in elementary school as the conversion to metric was underway. 40 years later we have an unusually hybrid system, with most people bi-metric/imperial.
Day-to-day, liquid measures are generally referred to in liters (i.e. gasoline, jugs of milk). I have no idea how "miles per gallon" convert. Ditto distances - & highway speeds. My wife drives "15km to work" and I once got a ticket for doing "140." My car's dashboard tells me I burn around 9 liters of gas to drive 100km.
However, many things are still imperial. If you ask me how tall I am I'll say 6'2. If you ask what I weigh I'll say 200 pounds. If I'm plumbing a drainage line at my house I might go to Home Depot and pick up some 2-inch ABS pipe, if I'm laying down a floor I might buy some 4x8 plywood sheets. (It's funny - I bought an old house three years ago and in the process of fixing it up all my elementary school fractions came back - "What's half of 11 and five-eigth's inches?"
The fact that people take these free energy claims seriously is the prime example of how scientifically illiterate people are
I'm not really that concerned about claims of 'free energy' being taken seriously. I'm more concerned about misinformation around issues that really matter such as immunization (thank you Jenny McCarthy - Nice t!ts, now go fnck off), or in Africa the discussion around aids and HIV. In the scheme of things, some whirly magnets are neither here nor there.
I agree - Blacklists are a pain! My brother's domain got randomly blacklisted, as did another business venture I'm involved with. None of them were spammers, but email was blocked - And requests to be 'unblocked' went into what could best be described as a 'black' hole.
When you are a passenger in a car, do you have the same rules on dress?
No, because "in general" the type of injuries one might have in an airplane accident are different than what one might suffer in a car accident.
"Generally" injuries in survivable aircraft accidents are caused by fire, the evacuation slides, and getting away from the burning aircraft (good shoes).
"Generally" injuries in survivable auto accidents are caused by impact trauma. You usually don't have to sprint away from a crashed car.
On a ship, do you wear a life-vest at all times?
No, but I know where they are (I ride on ships a half-dozen times a year).
you can change your chances of survival in a plane as well
You can also improve your chances of avoiding injury. When I board the plane, I'm amazed at the number of people who fly in shorts, flip-flops and wife-beaters. If the plane is on fire, guess who's going to have the worst burns?
When I fly I'm in closed-toe shoes, long trousers, and a long-sleeved shirt. My shirt has a buttoned breast pocket that has my passport, credit card, and some cash.
Anal to be sure, but if I have to get off in a hurry, I've got everything I need, and my flip-flops aren't going to be melted.
When I was in grade three (in 1975) I started taking public transit (by bus) to school. This included a transfer between buses. In addition to my bus fare, my parents gave me a dime to call home if I got lost or had a problem. I never did. Just get your kid a phone. If you've lost the kid, call them and say "Where are you?" or have them call you.
to say that I will take one for the team and volunteer to map Hawaii
Always puzzles me why more people don't up and move to Hawaii. If I was an American citizen I'd move there in a heartbeat. There's always some kind of jobs for clever people and I'm sure Hawaii is no exception. I mean why would you live in Montana when you could live in Molokai?
are definite psychological barriers that make it a challenge
I think the hardest thing about this test is you're required to do the ascent with the regulator in your mouth - So you have to exhale while ascending, and supress every instinct you have to take a breath from that available regulator. It's very hard to supress that instinct...
it's not an activity that requires much in the way of physical prowess.
In 2005 I took my PADI open-water certification. It wasn't that hard and I'm not overly fit, however IIRC the unfit in the class had trouble with four things -
- A swimming test whereby you have to swim 200 meters
- A treading water test whereby you have to tread water for 10 minutes
- A "Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent" (CESA) test whereby you have to steadly swim to the surface exhaling continously in a low/out of air situation from a depth of around 15 meters (need good lung capacity).
- Shore dives whereby with all your gear on you've got to walk out and then swim to a dive buoy.
Slashdot Mirror
American society is risk averse to pathological levels in general.
Depends what you're talking about. On space shuttles, absolutely. In the army, not so much. We'll spend billions for quadruple redundancy on the Shuttle, but wouldn't spend hundreds-of-thousands for armour plating for HumVees (sp?)
If you don't like the two wars, then let us drill here, drill now
The problem is you're just delaying the inevitable - Oil is a finite resource. Sure, you could drill up Alaska like swiss cheese, but what does it buy you? Another 20 years? We need to move to renewables.
Part of the reason companies like Bell and Xerox were able to invest in 'basic research' was that back in the the day they had monopoly positions (Bell's through legislation, Xerox's via patents), which meant they had huge profits and in turn meant they had spare money for "basic R&D."
It might have cost $2 per minute to call France but a portion of that $2 per minute went to R&D.
The loss of the monopoly positions (justified in many cases) meant by extension the loss of the profits that are required to support R&D.
I'd rather do daily groceries by bike.
Do you have children? Do you live with a partner? Does s/he work? My wife and I each work and get home from work at around 5:30. We have dinner with our daughter around 6 or 6:30, then bath time, story time and bed time with one parent, while the other parent cleans up from dinner. Then it's an hour or so of 'us' time, before we head to bed. Where exactly in our schedule is this mythical time to do 'daily groceries by bike' in the dark pouring rain in February?
My wife still wants it for 911
Same reason we've kept it (along with a hard-wired 'old skool' phone), especially now that we have a toddler. Here in Vancouver, Canada, even if you dial 911 and then drop the phone emergency services will respond to your address.
I'm sure if the production team had tried to come up with original shots for each episode, they would have looked a lot more low-budget
Hey, I'll be the first to admit that many stock FX shots were used over and over again, to the point of it being a joke, but there also frequently tons of new stuff...
Off the top of my head, the Pegasus sequences had many new FX shots, as did all the Eastern Alliance story arcs, War of the Gods (or whatever it was called), and on and on.
Lame special effects
I guess you're trolling but I'll bite and ask: Are you frakkin' kidding?!! I remember watching the show every Sunday night and being blown away by the FX. There was nothing on the air like it in 1978:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED89A1rm-Bg
This stuff was done *on TV*, with MODELS and motion-control cameras. It was unprecedented. I realize every kid today can whip off an episode of Star Track on his Macbook, but that was not the case in 1978.
It's an elitist hobby for techno-geeks
Funny, I feel the same way about World of Warcraft.
After a while, you'll be wondering why you ever let that sh1t get into your brain for hours a day
Obligatory "Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television" link:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694
I live in Vancouver. Whether you get 'scanned' depends a lot on where you want to go. If you want to go to a dance club ("Night at the Roxbury") with $10 martinis in the Granville Entertainment District, or a high-end strip bar then yes you'll need to get scanned to get through the door. If you want to go to a pub with your buddies and have a few pints and watch the hockey game, or go to a seedier strip club, then no, you won't get scanned. The clubs that have these scanners have large signs telling you as such, and the cameras are fairly obvious.
I don't really have an issue with it as I don't have to patronize those bars if I don't want to.
So act shallow to attract shallow people
A lot of attraction is based on first impressions - A good haircut, nice shoes and a pressed shirt 'get you in the door.' You won't get much further if you don't have something to sell (i.e. intelligence, sense of humour, etc.) but to make your pitch you've got to make a good first impression. Face, it girls notice shoes. Loose the Tevas with socks.
just wanted to play games on their home computers
Yes, and often the way you got games was to painstakingly key them in (in basic) from the source code printed in magazines.
You couldn't help but pick up a little basic along the way...
[flame suit on]
I know much of slashdot would vehemently disagree, but for the majority of users, Windows comes 'for free' with their PC. They buy a computer from Dell or whomever and it comes with Windows, then when the buy a new PC 4 or 5 years later, it comes with Windows again. Virtually no one I know 'buys' the OS - They'll simply get a the newest / latest when they buy a new computer.
[/flame]
The real problem is that it is surprisingly hard to embrace a new system of measurement when you've spent your entire life thinking in different terms.
I live in Canada. I'm 42, so I was in elementary school as the conversion to metric was underway. 40 years later we have an unusually hybrid system, with most people bi-metric/imperial.
Day-to-day, liquid measures are generally referred to in liters (i.e. gasoline, jugs of milk). I have no idea how "miles per gallon" convert. Ditto distances - & highway speeds. My wife drives "15km to work" and I once got a ticket for doing "140." My car's dashboard tells me I burn around 9 liters of gas to drive 100km.
However, many things are still imperial. If you ask me how tall I am I'll say 6'2. If you ask what I weigh I'll say 200 pounds. If I'm plumbing a drainage line at my house I might go to Home Depot and pick up some 2-inch ABS pipe, if I'm laying down a floor I might buy some 4x8 plywood sheets. (It's funny - I bought an old house three years ago and in the process of fixing it up all my elementary school fractions came back - "What's half of 11 and five-eigth's inches?"
The fact that people take these free energy claims seriously is the prime example of how scientifically illiterate people are
I'm not really that concerned about claims of 'free energy' being taken seriously. I'm more concerned about misinformation around issues that really matter such as immunization (thank you Jenny McCarthy - Nice t!ts, now go fnck off), or in Africa the discussion around aids and HIV. In the scheme of things, some whirly magnets are neither here nor there.
I agree - Blacklists are a pain! My brother's domain got randomly blacklisted, as did another business venture I'm involved with. None of them were spammers, but email was blocked - And requests to be 'unblocked' went into what could best be described as a 'black' hole.
When you are a passenger in a car, do you have the same rules on dress?
No, because "in general" the type of injuries one might have in an airplane accident are different than what one might suffer in a car accident.
"Generally" injuries in survivable aircraft accidents are caused by fire, the evacuation slides, and getting away from the burning aircraft (good shoes).
"Generally" injuries in survivable auto accidents are caused by impact trauma. You usually don't have to sprint away from a crashed car.
On a ship, do you wear a life-vest at all times?
No, but I know where they are (I ride on ships a half-dozen times a year).
you can change your chances of survival in a plane as well
You can also improve your chances of avoiding injury. When I board the plane, I'm amazed at the number of people who fly in shorts, flip-flops and wife-beaters. If the plane is on fire, guess who's going to have the worst burns?
When I fly I'm in closed-toe shoes, long trousers, and a long-sleeved shirt. My shirt has a buttoned breast pocket that has my passport, credit card, and some cash.
Anal to be sure, but if I have to get off in a hurry, I've got everything I need, and my flip-flops aren't going to be melted.
I enjoy flying simply because the idea is so absurd.
So true:
"Everything is amazing, nobody is happy..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jETv3NURwLc
Airplane segment starts at 2 minutes in...
"You're sitting in a chair... In the SKY!"
When I was in grade three (in 1975) I started taking public transit (by bus) to school. This included a transfer between buses. In addition to my bus fare, my parents gave me a dime to call home if I got lost or had a problem. I never did. Just get your kid a phone. If you've lost the kid, call them and say "Where are you?" or have them call you.
to say that I will take one for the team and volunteer to map Hawaii
Always puzzles me why more people don't up and move to Hawaii. If I was an American citizen I'd move there in a heartbeat. There's always some kind of jobs for clever people and I'm sure Hawaii is no exception. I mean why would you live in Montana when you could live in Molokai?
are definite psychological barriers that make it a challenge
I think the hardest thing about this test is you're required to do the ascent with the regulator in your mouth - So you have to exhale while ascending, and supress every instinct you have to take a breath from that available regulator. It's very hard to supress that instinct...
it's not an activity that requires much in the way of physical prowess.
In 2005 I took my PADI open-water certification. It wasn't that hard and I'm not overly fit, however IIRC the unfit in the class had trouble with four things -
- A swimming test whereby you have to swim 200 meters
- A treading water test whereby you have to tread water for 10 minutes
- A "Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent" (CESA) test whereby you have to steadly swim to the surface exhaling continously in a low/out of air situation from a depth of around 15 meters (need good lung capacity).
- Shore dives whereby with all your gear on you've got to walk out and then swim to a dive buoy.
Just make an SSH tunnel to your server in the U.S. Problem solved.
I have a server in the USA? Who knew?!?! Cool. (I live in Vancouver, Canada, and I can't use Hulu.)
Hulu is an excellent example of a proper solution
Wrong. Go on a holiday to Canada or France and try to use Hulu - Then let me know how "excellent" you think this "proper" solution is...